Nation’s Jaw-Dropping Music Garners American Prize For DYAO

by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Main Articles

Stunning Win Of Prestigious Prize Puts Valley’s Young Artists In National Spotlight

by Glen Richardson

The Denver Young Artists Orchestra and conductor Wes Kenney has received the 2016-17 American Prize. Selected by a panel of judges from across the U.S., the DYAO has been honored with the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award recognizing performances of music by American composers. The youth orchestra is the state’s first musical ensemble to earn the cash prize Bacon award from the national nonprofit administered by the Hal City Music Theater, Danbury, CT.

Formed in 1977 under the auspices of the Denver Symphony Orchestra (now the Colorado Symphony Orchestra), it was started as a means for the Valley’s most talented young musicians to rehearse and perform together under demanding professional standards. With headquarters on South Colorado Blvd., the organization’s five orchestras train nearly 250 students ages seven to 23 annually.

Now in his third season with the DYAO, Wes Kenney won the 2007 Grand Prize at the Varna (Bulgaria) International Conducting Competition. Last August he started his 13th season as Music Director of the Fort Collins Symphony and Director of Orchestras at CSU. He is also Music Director of Opera Fort Collins and conducts three professional operatic productions as well as many concerts in Northern Colorado. He has been guest conductor for the Denver Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony and the Colorado Music Festival. This July he will travel to Korea to conduct the Changwon Philharmonic. Previously he has been a guest conductor with the Vidin State Philharmonic and Stara Zagora Opera Company in Bulgaria as well as at the Edinburgh (Scotland) Music Festival.

Five Ensembles

The Denver Young Artists Orchestra includes five ensembles. In addition to the original orchestra or DYAO there are four training ensembles: two Conservatory Orchestras and two String Ensembles. Auditions take place every spring. Local concerts are held in metro area venues including Boettcher Concert Hall, Gates Concert Hall at DU’s Newman Center plus the Macky Auditorium in Boulder. DYAO has performed with many prominent soloists over the years, including Wendy Warner, Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Edgar Meyer. In addition, DYAO has toured internationally several times, including Europe and South America.

The youth orchestra has become well known through the annual Painted Violi

n fundraising project exhibited each year throughout the Cherry Creek Valley. Over the past 13 years it has grown from a handful of pieces to more than 22 total pieces in a given season. Other instruments have also become a part of the collection including cellos, violas, basses and a mandolin. Nearly 160 pieces have been featured in numerous galleries plus larger venues, such as Boettcher Concert Hall and the Lakewood Cultural Center.

Members of the orchestras graduate into colleges and universities across the country. Alumni can be found studying in various fields including engineering, medicine, music, and law. They attend prestigious institutions including Brown University, The Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, Harvard, Stanford and Yale. Alumni who continued on to professional music careers now perform in major orchestras including the Atlanta, Boston and Chicago Symphony plus the Cleveland Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera.

Support Young Superstars

Valley families hankering to hear and support these young American Prize winners have a trio of opportunities within the next 60 days. On Feb. 12 the Young Artists Orchestra performs Peter and the Wolf side by side with the Colorado Symphony at Boettcher Concert Hall, 1 p.m. The Prokofiev classic is a fantastical tale in which Peter and a myriad of unruly animals are brought to life by the instruments of the orchestra to tell a tale in which good triumphs over evil. It is a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to instrumental music through storytelling. Children will hear the music and learn about the instruments. They will also be inspired seeing these young DYAO musicians as they play with the Symphony.

Then on March 5 the Denver Young Artists Orchestra fundraising dinner is at the Wellshire Inn Event Center on South Colorado Blvd., 7 p.m. Theme for this year’s gala is Stories in Music and will allow these American Prize winning young students to tell moving and inspiring stories through music. In addition to live performances by the students there will be auctions, dinner and dessert.

Finally on March 12 there’s a DYAO Spectacular featuring all of the orchestras performing at Boettcher Concert Hall, 2:30 p.m. This program includes Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade, excerpts from Beethoven Symphony No. 1, plus m

uch more. In addition to Music Director and Conductor Wes Kenney, attendees will hear the work of Conservatory Orchestras Conductor Gal Faganel and String Ensembles Conductor Carmen Wiest.

DYAO’s American Prize Honors Composer Bacon

DYAO’s American Prize is for performing music by American composers. It is named in honor of Ernst Bacon (1898-1990). He was a pioneering composer, pianist and conductor who, along with Thomson, Copland and Harris, found voice for American music. He composed more than 250 songs over his career. Winner of a Pulitzer Scholarship for his Symphony in D minor and not fewer than three Guggenheim Fellowships, he set out to create compositions that expressed the vitality and affirmative spirit of our country.

Character Of Denver’s Neighborhoods Being Scraped Away

by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Main Articles

Personality Of Areas Is Being Destroyed To Build Bigger Homes, Duplexes And Pop-Tops

by Glen Richardson

From Hilltop to DU and other unique sections of our metropolis, angry neighbors are fighting back against “hummer homes” cropping up in the Valley’s established neighborhoods as the wealthy crowd moves into their hoods. Duplexes, starter homes, bungalows and small ranches are being demolished and replaced by faux estates as affluent people move closer into the city but don’t want to live in smaller, older houses.

To critics, these new homes look out of place compared to the rest of the neighborhood and clash with the existing architectural styles of other properties.

Furthermore, in many cases a luxurious interior comes at the expense of the exterior. Many have tiny lawns, cookie-cutter designs and are closely packed to neighboring homes. Garish designs often feature garages nearly as big as the homes. Frequently the “McMansions” under construction end up blocking the view of homes that have been in the neighborhood for decades.

Scrapes Soar

Residential scrapes have returned to Denver, hitting levels that haven’t been seen in decades: During the mid-1990s, slightly more than 100 demolition permits were filed annually in the city. The number of demolition permits, however, has shot up since then: In 2014, there were 373 demolition permits issued followed by 326 in 2015; By this last October another 318 had already been issued.

Denver’s DU neighborhood is ground zero for scrapes and rebuilds, with the most permits issued of any area in the last two years. Small wonder, this neighborhood is full of classic beauty with old trees, timeless architecture, attractive gardens and college-priced eating-places. Homes run the gamut from new, contemporary townhomes and duplexes, to old apartment buildings and condos, to classic frame-and-siding and brick bungalows. Scrapes become a problem when owners of these small, aging properties sell their houses to developers who put in duplex or triplex units that aren’t in character with the surrounding homes. The new units offer space and amenities that homeowners want but distort housing prices and leave charming, older homes worth less than the land they sit on.

In Hilltop where scrapes and remodels continue at a furious pace, Sunset transformed a 1954 mid-century brick ranch house into a two-story, 5,100 sq. ft. re-imagined home during the summer of 2015. “When we chose the 1950s house to remodel, the response was passionate and mixed,” the magazine admitted. “Some people said we should leave a good thing alone. Others pointed out that the house, which wasn’t exactly iconic, could use the update.” Design-build firm Design Platform created a remodel that left intact the best of the existing details (like the fireplace) while adding more space and some of the mid-century features (like custom built-ins) the original home lacked.

More Square Footage

“Scrapes are most frequent in the Valley’s most popular neighborhoods,” says Caryn Champine, director of planning services for the city. Moreover, Denver is seeing unprecedented demand for building permits, she adds. Additionally there is a growing demand in the market for single-family homes that provide more square footage than the older homes that are currently in many neighborhoods.

“Neighborhoods are just being destroyed,” suggests Mayfair resident Cynthia Kemper, where scrapes are common. She claims builders and homeowners aren’t honoring the homes next to them. Quickly adding, however, that no one is suggesting people can’t do scrapes or pop-tops. Her point: “What we’re saying is look at what’s around it and don’t destroy the continuity, the context or the feel of the community.”

Champine, however, reminds residents that the city’s codes don’t have provisions that dictate the scale of a new house based on the size of the home next door. “We had that conversation during the zoning update in 2010, but at the end of the day, there was no support to have an adjacent home trigger restrictions on a new home being built,” she explains. “Property rights were held very dear during that process.”

Spurring Condo Sales

Denver has recently enacted so-called construction defects reform. The City Council approved a proposal from the Mayor’s office that makes it harder for homeowners to file defects claims relating to sinking foundations, moldy walls or leaking roofs. The rationale is that developers will build more if they’re not so scared of being sued all the time.

Undeniably, the measure was crafted to spur a segment of Denver’s housing boom that’s been lagging behind the rest: New, for-sale condominiums.

Denver officials believe that the shortage in condominium construction is a direct result of recent trends in construction defect litigation brought by some condominium homeowners associations against home-builders. Until the recently enacted measure the costs and risks associated with high-rise condominium projects made the construction of those projects prohibitive, except at the very highest price point.

Big Home Boom

What makes people want to build a big house? Because they can! The rich and famous have always enjoyed lavish estates. From the Hollywood Hills to the Hamptons, those who have money have enjoyed the benefits that come with affluence. Despite the critics and the cost of energy, big homes remain popular. True, some buyers are moving toward smaller homes, but they remain in the minority.

However, choosing a property that has some land around it goes a long way toward making the house look like it belongs where it sits. Even communities that would like to limit or ban the construction of big homes don’t tend to have a problem when a builder puts a large home on an equally large plot of land. In a Denver neighborhood known for historic houses, for example, a buyer purchased and scraped two homes to assemble the land to build a 5,300 sq. ft. residence on a third of an acre overlooking the Denver Country Club.

Those who can afford luxury have always been attracted to it and, if history is indication of the future, beautiful homes in ideal locations are always going to attract builders and buyers. Furthermore, even for those who may want to downsize in the future, a big house is likely to put a big check in their pocket.

Shrinking Households

The age of the buyer doesn’t seem to matter. About 43% of 2,000 adults surveyed nationally would prefer homes bigger than what they live in now, the real estate search engine Trulia found. Baby boomers preferred bigger by a narrow margin, while millennials and those considered Generation X favored larger in even greater numbers.

New single-family homes had three feet of yard space for every one foot of finished indoor space in the early 2000s. Fast forward to the end of 2014 and there is just less than two feet of yard space for every one-foot of finished indoors.

The inflated home size is coupled with the persistent shrinking size of households. In 2012 the average household contained a record low 2.55 people — basically 1,000 sq. ft. per occupant of the newly constructed home. Compare that to 40 years ago, when there were 3.01 people per household and the average new home size was 1,660 sq. ft., or 550 sq. ft. per occupant.